Company News

£94m of Aston Martin shares are being shorted

Investors are gambling on further falls in share price

At the beginning of last week Aston Martin issued a profit warning confirming they will sell less cars this year than expected. We sit at the beginning of this week and things look just as glum for the historic car company.

Aston Martin have 8.2 per cent of their shares on loan to investors with £94 million worth of shares being shorted. Most investors it would be fair to assume, are expecting fresh price drops.

This comes after Aston Martin posted a pre-tax loss of close to £80m for the first 6 months of 2019.

Last October the share price was valued at £19 by bankers, that number is significantly lower today sitting at £4.63 roughly a quarter of the previous figure.

Andy Palmer

Most concerned with the recent events could be Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer who just last week refused to answer questions regarding his future.

As pressure mounts due to the latest slump, Palmer and the firm’s plethora of bankers are facing questions regarding the valuation they placed on the company last year when it joined the London Stock Exchange.

What is causing the issue?

CEO Palmer has placed the blame on “continued macro-economic uncertainty” which seems to reference the uncertainty caused by Brexit throughout the UK and EU holistically.

James Bond 25

Aston Martins greatest ad campaign and perhaps the greatest ad campaign of any car company is the Bond franchise.

Synonymous with the firm’s cars, the trend looks set to continue with Bond 25 to be released 3rd April 2020. Reports claim Aston Martin will parade 3 of their vehicles in the upcoming film including; DB5, Series II V8 Vantage and the new £1.2m hypercar the Valhalla.

Aston Martin and specifically Mr Palmer will have their eyes fixed on the film’s release date hoping history is kind enough to repeat itself with increased sales.

The irony in all of this, is that the release date was originally set for October this year. However, after original director Danny Boyle walked away from the project the release date was pushed back to early 2020 adding to Aston Martins slump.

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